Another flooding mega-disaster: Sri Lanka recovers from extreme flooding
At least 43 are dead and thousands still in refugee camps due to extreme flooding in eastern Sri Lanka caused by record monsoon rains. According to the United Nations, the rains in recent weeks in Sri Lanka have been the heaviest in nearly 100 years of record keeping, and the flood that resulted was a 1-in-100 year event, according to The U.N. Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System. Rainfall at Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, during the 42-day period December 1 - January 12 was 1606 mm (63"), which is about how much rain the station usually receives in an entire year (1651 mm, or 65".) Sri Lanka's previous most devastating flooding disaster was the 2004 tsunami, but as The Economist commented, "in terms of the numbers of people displaced and farmland inundated, the floods have been even more devastating than the tsunami of December 2004." Damage estimates start at $500 million, and much of Sri Lanka's agriculture has been severely damaged by the disaster. Also of concern is the large number of land mines from the recent Sri Lanka civil war that may have been unearthed by the floods. Water is also a major concern in the flood-hit area, as fighting between government forces and Tamil Tigers rebels from mid-2007 to May 2009 damaged or destroyed almost all of the water facilities.
Figure 1. A family affected by the 2011 Sri Lanka floods braves the flood waters. Image credit: United Nations.
Sri Lanka is now the fifth nation in the past six month to suffer a flooding disaster unprecedented in its history. As I reported in a previous post, the other four mega-impact floods--the July 2010 Pakistan floods, the December - January Queensland Australia floods, the November 2010 Colombia floods, and the January 2011 Rio de Janeiro floods--were all accompanied by an atmosphere laden with moisture, due, in part, due to sea surface temperatures over nearby ocean areas that were the 2nd or 3rd warmest on record. However, that was not the case for the Sri Lanka floods. Ocean temperatures during December 2010 were 0.2°C below average in the 5x5 degree square of ocean adjoining the island (5N - 10N, 80E - 85E). The floods appear to be due to the normal monsoon rains that typically affect the region this time of year, enhanced by the strong La Niña event occurring in the Eastern Pacific.
Figure 2. Satellite-estimated precipitation over Sri Lanka for January 3 - 9. Up to 18 inches (525 mm) fell over eastern Sri Lanka. Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory.
Jeff Masters
Reader Comments
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Whoa. Unbelievable. The years go by fast, enjoy them while you can. I had to miss most of their growing up years. Can't get it back. Glad to see your back too.
From what I've read on the subject, there may be an uptick in the number of hurricanes initially, but then there will be fewer (but more powerful) hurricanes overall. This is due to the projected increases in shear over the tropical regions as a result of warming.
The shear will help prevent hurricanes, but if anything manages to get organized there will be plenty of energy to tap.
There's a couple of papers on the subject, but it's fairly new research.
After reading through the post, it seems he is relying on a "mini-hydrogen" phenomena that may or may not exist. There also seems to be considerable uncertainties about the resulting energies and products.
However I should clarify my previous statement. Fusing iron (Fe+Fe) is a net energy negative transaction. Doing unequal product fusion (say in this case Nickel and Hydrogen) produce energy according to their binding energies).
The other issue is, as has always been the case, scalability. Believe it or not, achieving fusion is fairly easy. Achieving fusion that produces more energy than you put into it is very hard. Admittedly the posting is rather short, but I surmise that even IF the fusion reaction would take place as described, it would only be useful as a radiation source, not an energy source.
Close. 1989. Wikipedia has a decent article and shows how bad science gets caught.
In short, cold fusion has yet to be shown as anything more than a pipe dream. There have been a lot of claims but no consistently repeatable experiments have ever come to light. The DOE has determined cold fusion research to be a waste, and won't fund any such proposals.
But it would be nice though. :)
Still a whole lot of model discrepancy on track of low and qpf. Another wait and see situation.
Tropical Disturbance Summary
TROPICAL DISTURBANCE 07F
18:00 PM FST January 21 2011
======================================
At 6:00 AM UTC, Tropical Disturbance 07F (998 hPa) located at 21.8S 163.0W is reported as moving southeast at 15 knots. Position POOR based on multispectral infrared/enhanced infrared imagery with animation and peripheral surface observations. Sea surface temperature is around 30C.
Gale Force Winds
=================
Northwest winds 30-35 knots within 80 to 150 miles away from the center in the southeastern quadrant
Organization has improved much in the last 12 hours. Convection is displaced to the east of the low level circulation center. System lies under an upper diffluent region in a moderately sheared environment. Cyclonic circulation extends up to 500 HPA.
Global models have picked up the system and gradually moving it southeastward with slight intensification.
The potential for this tropical disturbance to form into a tropical cyclone within the next 24-36 hours is MODERATE.
Tropical Disturbance Summary
TROPICAL DEPRESSION 06F
21:00 PM FST January 21 2011
========================================
At 9:00 AM UTC, Tropical Depression 06F (1001 hPa) located near 14.7S 176.9W is reported as moving slowly. Position POOR based on multispectral infrared/enhanced infrared imagery with animation and peripheral surface observations. Sea surface temperature is around 30C.
Overall organization has slightly improved past 12 hours. Convection has increased over the center in the last 6 hours. System lies under an upper diffluent region in a moderate sheared environment. Cyclonic circulation extends to 500 HPA.
Global models have picked up the system and gradually moves it southeastward with some intensification.
The potential for this tropical depression to develop into a tropical cyclone within the next 24-48 hours is HIGH.
Sent you a message. :)
This morning they came into much better agreement. Rumor has it this storm could compare to the 1993 blizzard for North Carolina or New England.
Today: Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 50. North wind between 5 and 15 mph.
Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 25. Calm wind becoming north northwest around 5 mph.
Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 52. Calm wind becoming northwest around 5 mph.
Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 24. Calm wind.
Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 55. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph.
They should arrest people just for mentioning 2012.
What else should people be arrested for? Don't hold back, tell us how you really feel.
Looks like there's a lot of winter left. I'm still mongering for my Gulf Coast Blizzard!
lol
........................
Keep your fingers crossed!
Looks like another front pushes through the GoM and the FL peninsula today. It's remarkably humid here - feels like March 21, not Jan 21 - so I'm very interested to see what happens with this FROPA...
Have a good day, everybody.... and HEY! it's Friday! there's gotta be something good in the forecast for u... like the weekend....LOL
weekend - cooler temps with a 100% chance of great footbal games and a 75% chance of drinking too much beer
(the above is based on 7 years of legal beer drinking ability and nearly 28 years of football watching)
Off to work. Ya'll have a good day!
Some days are Diamonds.....
This one is up there somewhere.
Overnight showers have left Sparkles on everything. A zillion prisms dancing to birdsong and stuff.
Hope that everyone has a Good One.
none but ourselves can free our minds....
Naples: 68
A difference of 106 degrees. Wow. I've been in air that cold; I'll take 68, thank you.
Speaking of temperature differences: in the past five days, record daily highs and high minimums have outnumbered record daily lows and low minimums by a very lopsided 398 to 14 across the United States. (Over the past six days, that high record/low record ratio has been 439 to 42.) We'll likely see more record cold temperatures tonight and into tomorrow to balance things a bit, but for now, January continues to impress not with its cold but with its heat.
About 10 years ago, I left Rapid City, SD and it was -22 (wind chill I think). I got back to Tampa and it was 80. That was a bit of an adjustment.
There is cold, then there is "holy >beep! It is COLD!"
Ah yes, Master X troll, the answer is in two parts. Yes I can cite it; no, I will not.
I refer you to the last part of this post.
The two you cited clearly avoided the discussion of several hurdles that the French admit must be dealt with for the program to be complete. Those hurdles are very serious and even they admit to not knowing the details.
It amazes me how people like you can simply skip past the details, march directly to the sales promo and call it FACT.
BTW - Wikipedia is not necessarily a very dependable source for 'complete' data on such subjects. Even they admit to that.
Like I said in a previous post.
Folks, the information is out there for you to read.
Cut and Paste the following phrase into Google Search -
reprocessing nuclear waste France
Decide for yourself.
It's 40.3 at my location. Clearing up shortly. Had .05 inches of rain over night.
Woke up at 3 a.m. to the dog pawing at me and a jaw clenching lightning strike right outside the window.
Still loving this rain. We need it!
TGIF. Have to drive near Orlando now.
Happy Friday everyone.
Ready for some storms today?
This blog has been banned by WunderBlogAdmin.
Surprised, and not surprised, at the same time.
I'd have to respectfully disagree. The latest runs of the LBL (Local Liquor and Beer) model agrees with you about the games, but puts the probability of drinking too much closer to 100%, with 110% chance of hangovers and an 80% chance of "promising never to do that again". There is also a 50% chance of "why am I sleeping in this bush?", a 30% chance of "where are my pants?", a 15% chance of "Hey that's funny, this looks like a jail cell." and a 10% chance "who the heck is this sleeping next to me, and why aren't they wearing any clothes?".
For those that are married, also be prepared for 50-100% chance "Oh no, you ARE NOT going to go out drinking with your football buddies again!"
Yeah, it sorta puts the lid on all that nonsense about WU giving preferential treatment to only pro-AGW folks, while silencing those against it, doesn't it? ;-)
Yes.
That first link on google is from a website that has a severe conservative tilt. Reprocessing nuclear fuel is not as "simple" as just taking the used fuel and making it new again. Yes, nuclear reactors use only 3-6% of the fuel put in. What is not mentioned is that of the fuel put in... an average of 4% of that is fissile U-235. (way to not give all the info there)
They also produce a large amount of highly hazardous fission products, including Strontium-90 (which can take the place of Calcium in bones and other organisms), Caesium-135 (which has a long half-life, and can remain in soil for a long time), and isotopes of Iodine, Xenon, and Barium. To fully reprocess fuel, all of these isotopes must be disposed of, and the remaining fuel re-enriched to sustain a nuclear reaction. IIRC, the French reprocessing procedure does increase costs 6%... over what new fuel will cost.
Furthermore, reactors in the US are some of the most efficient in the world, and new, more efficient and safer designs are constantly being developed.
So, yes, spent fuel can be reprocessed, but its not as simple as recycling a plastic milk jug. In nuclear reactions, matter is destroyed to create energy. It has to do with that E=mc^2 thing. You know, the amount of energy created equals the mass of the material times the speed of light squared. This means :
So one gram of mass is equivalent to the following amounts of energy:
89.9 terajoules
25.0 million kilowatt-hours (≈25 GW·h)
21.5 billion kilocalories (≈21 Tcal)
21.5 kilotons of TNT-equivalent energy (≈21 kt)
85.2 billion BTUs
(from Wikipedia)
He broke the rules somewhere doesn't surprise me.
But why didn't you answer my question yesterday you just ran off?
National Weather Service Raleigh NC
615 am EST Friday Jan 21 2011
Also to be considered... the parent high before the storm is
forecast to be in position to deliver very cold dry air into our
region before the storm develops. Even if hybrid or non classical
damming develops (which appears likely)... with a progressive
surface high - there would still be that initial cold air to deal
with. Then... the storm itself will generate its own cold air
(examples include the March 93 superstorm on the extreme and the
Christmas 2010 snow).
Going back, it appears a number of blog entries were removed last night. Must have been something.
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